Pato Box – Alpha Demo

Pato Box is a very cool blend of third person adventure, beat ‘em up and Punch-Out!!-inspired boxing that sees you playing an anthropomorphic duck who sets out for revenge after being betrayed by a mysterious organisation known as Deathflock!

Pato Box starts out like a traditional Punch-Out!!-style boxing game that sees you dodging attacks and swinging punches as you hope to fell your opponent. Things take a turn for the worst in the second round however when one of your team drugs you, causing you to get knocked out cold by your opponent and then tossed out on the street to die after he match. Obviously no boxing duck worth his salt would take that sort of abuse lying down, so you set out to hunt down Deathflock’s henchmen and punch your way to whoever’s at the top of their organisation.

The core gameplay in Pato Box is the boxing, in which you face off agains a selection of strange opponents, paying close attention to visual cues to detect their next attacks and attempting to counter them. There’ a lot more to it than that though, between fights there’s also lots of third person exploration, puzzles, stealth and fun mini games to shake up the proceedings.

It’s still early in development so does have a few rough edges (your movement could be a bit smoother and the chef fight can be a little infuriating), but is shows a lot of promise with its dark narrative, super stylish artwork, fun combat and varied gameplay. There are plenty of great surprises when you jump in the ring with this one!